Reality Is Subjective
by ColorOfAngels
Summary: What would happen if Harry woke up one day to find that he had spent the last seven years, not as a wizard in training at Hogwarts, but as an inpatient at a mental institution?
1. Prolouge

A/N So here I go starting another story instead of updating my old ones but I've had this story in mind for a long time and I wanted to get it out...and hey anything is an improvement over nothing right? This chapter is short since it is sort of a prolouge but I expect at this point for the to only be two or three more chapters after this one...Im anticipating a shorter fic than is normal for me...so I hope you enjoy! and a million thanks so the best Beta ever Augurey Song!

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"And this is for my parents, and Sirius, and Dumbledore, and everything else you have taken away from me and everyone else in this world!" Harry shouted as he brought down the curse that was to end it all, upon Voldemort.

It was a complicated curse; one that Hermione and other members of the Order had been working on for months since he had found and destroyed the last Horcuxes, and now he was using it to defeat the most evil wizard of all time. All the duels that were taking place around him stopped, as everyone turned around to watch what was happening. Suddenly, there was a great flash of light and there was simply a pile of ashes where the Dark Lord once stood.

As the Death Eaters realized what had just happened, they either surrendered or tried to flee. Harry lowered his wand in disbelief as he stared at the pile of ash that was all that remained of the most evil wizard of all time. He was broken from his trance as his two best friends and his girlfriend rushed to his side.

"You did it Harry! The spell worked, I knew you could do it!" Hermione exclaimed as she pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Way to go mate," Ron told him as he clapped him on the shoulder, than pushed his manliness aside and to gave him a hug. "That was wicked."

Harry let go of Ron, however, when he saw who was standing behind him waiting for her turn.

"Harry..." Ginny said quietly as tears welled up in her eyes.

"It's okay Gin," he whispered in her ear as he pulled her close. "It's all over, there is nothing to keep us apart anymore, I wont let anything stand in our way ever again. I love you Ginny Weasley."

"I love you Harry Potter," Ginny answered in return. "Don't ever leave me," she pleaded.

"I won't, I promise I won't," he said sincerely as he looked into her eyes and wiped the tears of joy and relief off her cheeks. Just as Harry was saying this, everything started to get fuzzy and he began to feel light headed, almost as if he were floating.

"Wait...what's going on?" Harry asked, as the others seemed to move further and further away. "Where are you guys going?"

"What are you talking about, we're right here. Harry, are you okay?" Harry heard Hermione say, but it sounded muffled and far away.

Harry's feeling of floating quickly turned to one of falling and in the distance he heard Ginny screaming and everything went black.

When Harry came to, he opened his eyes slowly and reached his hands over his head in a big stretch. Or at least he tried to stretch until he realized that his hands were strapped to the bed. He looked around the room in a panic, trying to figure out where he was and why he was restrained.

It was a small room painted white, with the only furnishing being the bed that he resided in. There was one small window on the wall to his left that had bars attached to the outside and there was only one door in and out of the room that was on the wall opposite the window.

He looked down at himself and saw he was wearing a pair of light blue pajama pants and a cotton t-shirt that looked as if it had once been the same color as his pants, but had been washed more often so now it was a slightly different shade. He also noticed that he seemed skinnier and spindlier as if he hadn't worked out or taken part in any kind of physical activity in months. And then there was the fact that his hands were bound to the bed by worn leather straps.

He realized quickly that his wand was no where in sight and he was grateful he had been studying wandless magic. However he was quickly disturbed when he found that no matter how hard he tried, all of his attempts to break his binding where unsuccessful.

_This must be some kind of spell,_ Harry thought to himself. _It must be some kind of spell to keep me from using magic. I must have been captured by Death Eaters after I killed Voldemort. This has to be the work of the Dark Arts_.

Harry closed his eyes when he heard someone entering the room wanting to gather as much information before he revealed that he was awake.

"Good morning Mr. Potter," a cheery voice sounded from the bottom of his bed. "It's time for your sponge bath."

At the sound of this voice Harry's eyes flew open to reveal a familiar redhead in an unfamiliar uniform. "Ginny?" Harry managed to choke out. He was surprised to hear how gravelly his voice sounded, as if it had suffered from years of disuse.

The redhead dropped the container of soapy water she was holding in shock and hurried from the room.

Harry began struggling against his restraints desperately wanting to be able to follow his girlfriend and to find out what was going on. He wanted to know where he was, why he was tied up, why she was calling him Mr. Potter, and most of all why she had run away when she spoke to him.

He wasn't struggling for long before the door opened and a good looking young man with black hair in a white coat walked through the door and into the room, the read head hesitantly standing in the doorway.

"Hello there Harry. May I call you Harry? It's a pleasure to finally talk to you and see you awake," the man said pleasantly.

"Who are you? Where am I? Ginny, what's going on?" Harry questioned, as he continued to pull against his restraints.

"Please Harry, calm down and I will answer all your questions, but if you continue to struggle and potentially harm yourself I will be forced to sedate you, and I would really rather not."

Harry stopped struggling and watched the man warily, waiting for his answers.

"First of all Harry, that young woman over there is Jenny, not Ginny, and she has been a volunteer here at St. Marks Hospital for the past two years, and I am Dr. Riddle but you can call me Tom."

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A/N DUN DUN DUN...and the plot thickens...tell me what you think and the next chapter is not far off...nor are new chapters for all my stories far off...

B/N: We all know you can't wait to find out, so review and you'll get more!


	2. Part I

A/N Sorry this took me so long to update...well here is part two where some of your questions get answers and more are brought to light. As always I hope you enjoy!

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Harry's breath caught in his chest as the man revealed his identity, but he choose not to say anything as the doctor checked his pupils with a small flashlight.

"Harry, you were in a serious accident seven years ago. You were riding your bike across the street when you were struck by a hit and run driver where you sustained a serious head injury. You have been under my care ever since," he told him.

"But that's impossible," Harry replied.

"I know that it's hard to accept, but you have been in an almost constant catatonic state for the past seven years. There have been several times where you have come out of it, and we thought you would be alright, but you were always delirious, talking about magic and evil wizards and prophecies and all kinds of other nonsense before you would slip back into your previous state," the man claiming to be Tom Riddle continued.

"It's not nonsense, I've been at Hogwarts the past seven years, training to be a wizard. It's all real, this is fake, this is all some kind of trick," Harry insisted, talking more to himself than to the doctor.

"No Harry, this is what's real," Dr. Riddle said gently.

"Then what about my scar," Harry said trying to lift his hand to his head, but finding he could not as he was still restrained, "how do you explain that?"

"You got that in the accident," the older man explained.

"No I didn't! I got it when Voldemort killed my parents and tried to kill me as a baby," Harry said in frustration.

"Harry, that was all apart of the delusion. Your parents aren't dead, in fact I just talked to them, they are on their way now," he said as he continued to check Harry's vitals.

"My parents are...alive?" Harry choked out.

"Of course they are, and they were very excited to hear that you are awake and coherent. In fact I think I hear them now," Riddle said standing up and moving to the door. "Yes, here they are with Dr. Granger. Hello James, Lily, Heather," he greeted, speaking to a man with messy black hair and glasses, a woman with long red hair and green eyes, and a doctor with a mess of curly brown hair, in turn.

The red headed woman rushed into the room and sat on the edge of Harry's bed before pulling him into a hug.

"Oh Harry, my darling Harry, I can't believe you are finally awake!" she cried in between kisses.

"Mum?" Harry asked, now clearly confused.

"Of course dear, you don't know how long I have been looking forward to this day. They told me it might never come, but I never gave up hope," Lily told him, wiping happy tears from her eyes. "Oh can't we take the bindings off of him?" she asked.

"I would rather we kept them on him for a while longer," Tom replied. "He is still disoriented and I would prefer that we wait until we know he is stable and wont do anything unpredictable."

"But this is impossible," Harry said, pulling away from Lily. "You're dead, both of you are dead," he said looking between his mother and father.

"No son," James spoke, "we've just been waiting for you to wake up, we've been visiting once a week for the past seven years. We bring Violet sometimes too, we've never abandoned you."

"Who is Violet?" Harry asked.

"Your little sister, she just turned twelve last week," Lily supplied. "Dr. Riddle, Dr. Granger," Lily addressed the two standing near the door anxiously, "Why does Harry think we're dead, why doesn't he know who his sister is?"

"Well," the woman responded, "from what I have been able to gather, Harry had to come up with a reason for why you two weren't apart of his delusion and he needed the world he created to make sense, so he recreated his childhood to one where you two died when he was just a baby. You two were killed by an evil wizard name Voldamont before Violet was even born, therefore she wasn't apart of the delusion either."

"Voldemort," Harry corrected. "And I didn't make it up, it's real! I lived with the Dursley's until I was eleven when I found out that I'm a wizard, then I went to Hogwarts, I just defeated Voldemort and saved the world. This is just some plot by Death Eaters to make me think I have gone crazy."

"Death Eaters are who again?" Lily asked the doctors.

"Voldemort's followers," Heather replied quietly.

"Harry, don't you see the correlation in that you supposedly went to Hogwarts the same year you were in the accident," Dr. Riddle pressed.

"No, this isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real," Harry muttered to himself, greatly upsetting Lily.

"James, Lily, may I speak to you two outside," Riddle asked.

"Of course," James said taking his distraught wife by the arm and leading her out into the hall.

They were standing right outside the door, which was left open, so Harry was able to hear the whole conversation. Apparently they thought he was deaf in addition to crazy.

"Why wont he believe us? He's coherent now, what's still wrong with him?" Lily asked as soon as they were in the hall.

"Lily, you have to understand the severity of your son's condition. He has been in catatonic state for seven years, and in that time he has created this world that he has lived in that seems just as real to him as the world we live in," Tom explained.

"And not just that," Heather added, "his delusions are multi layered. He thinks he is some kind of hero, a wizard more specifically. He has also created an intricate spider's web of details to support his primary delusion. In his mind, he is the central character in a world more suitable to a fantasy novel than anything in reality. And its not just him in his mind, he has created a whole new world including friends, who are also magical, each with their own unique traits and abilities to help him on his quests which increased in difficulty as he got older. Together they have faced and conquered many different adversaries in grand overblown adventures where he is the one boy in all the world capable of leading them to victory and saving the day."

"Yes," Tom continued, "and as he has been able to hear what has been going on around him this whole time, he has subconsciously put some of us into his fantasy. Including Dr. Granger here, Rob Westly the orderly, Jenny, our volunteer, and even myself. He decided that I was the previous form of Voldemort, the evil Wizard that only he had the power to defeat."

"It's not that surprising that Harry chose Dr. Riddle as his nemesis," Dr. Granger explained. "Somewhere along the line, Harry picked up on the fact that he was the one responsible for his care and interpreted it as he was the one responsible for keeping him here."

"However," Tom interrupted, "Harry did mention something that was encouraging. He said that he had killed Voldemort. This was his whole purpose for living in his delusion, so I don't find it a coincidence that he has come around now. I am hopeful, that with Voldemort gone he no longer has a reason to slip back into his fantasy and we can keep him out of it for good."

"Okay, but what does this all mean for Harry's health?" James asked anxiously. "When will he be well enough for us to take him home?"

"That all depends on him James," Dr. Riddle replied kindly. "But it's going to take time and patience from us and a lot of encouragement that this is the real world until he either believes it or until he remembers on his own. To him the world he created is more real than this, he has to be the one who makes the decision and come to the realization that this is what is real. And then there are the physical side effects from being immobile for so long to take care of after that."

"What will that entail?" Harry heard his mother ask.

However, he was unable to make out the answer as all the noises of the hospital began to blend with their voices and his head began to spin. His vision started to go gray and fuzzy, first from the edges then moving in until all he could see was black.

As he started to come to, he could sense he was still in a hospital bed, but something felt different. And as his vision started to come back to him, he could start to make out the red head that was sitting at his bedside.

"Mum," he called weakly.

"Oh Harry, your awake! We have all been so worried about you."

"Ginny?"

A/N And there we have it...so who thinks they know which reality is real? And who is now thoroughly confused? I think I'm confused and I'm the one writing it...lol... I know that my medical facts and reasonings aren't sound but I'm an architecture major not pre-med so just work with me here...well let me know what you think so far...only two more chapters to go after this...


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